We Wait
by MikaMckeena
Summary: One night, one of the brothers never came home. And now the others are still waiting for him to walk through the door even now.
1. Chapter 1

We Wait...

One night, one of the brothers never came home. And now the others still waiting for him every night that year to come home.

Notes: Based on the 2003 cartoon, comes with character death.

Donnie

Always it brought a sense of calm to his normally active mind, the turning of the wrench into the hole to bring the parts together. His fingers waltzing over the keyboard in a sequence of numbers of the 1's and 0's in making a new program in his creativeness. It was perhaps the sense of breathing a form of life into these gadgets he made, execute in the use of his mind as only he could.

He had never been gifted like these brothers when it had come to the ninja training his father had taught them. To in the start to keep them safe from the outside world, to live in shadows and move in and out of them. Later used to save numerous times their very world from everything to evil aliens to demons out of Japanese folklore.

More also was his drive to keep the peace, the unwillingness to bring in pain or death even to a foe. Perhaps his father seeing this pacifist nature had trained in the bow staff, a weapon he could use in their training and not kill. Well by logic you could kill with it, any hard blow to the head could do that. Just it made him more aware of what he could do and the trail of his actions when they did fight.

Awareness came to him in both a good and also the bad outlook on his views when it came to his brothers. It had caused some ripples in their lives at times, that shifting point of view. He, always trying to walk the path of peace as his father might say at times.

And what had that cost them? His choice for peace now having become regret in this life. Pausing, he looked at the toaster that had been broken and repute together like Frankenstein monster, parts coming and gone. The once silver service full of scratches, the left corner tended when thrown during a family fight between Ralph and Leo years ago. The idea of a simple machine, that he could or his family could have gotten a new one had come and gone over the years. How long had this toaster been with them? How many times had he fixed this thing, giving it a new cord on life?

The blur of his reflection looked back on him, bubbled and torn in the guilt as he touched the dented corner. Feeling a smile, a smile of sadness in the memories of a whole family laughing around the table, eating and teasing the other as brothers do in the normal moments of their lives.

Now one of them would never walk throw that door, never to laugh with his family. Donnie paused, feeling that guilt of that night in his soul, the pain still raw even months now, such as the actions, his actions that night that caused that loss. Turning his gaze to the door, knowing that they had waited for him to walk through like always, even with all the odds against it ever happening. Waiting on the seeds of hope that guided their lives in the darkness of times now going out.

He would always wait, hoping while fixing a dead toaster that his family would be whole once more.


	2. Chapter 2

Mikey

Always was the water warm, cleaning the dishes, the row of dirty coffee cups waiting. One of them chipped a little, showing the well known grumpy cat with the black words "I hate mornings". The turtle smiled, his three fingers wrapping around the handle feeling that old stir.

He pushed back that pain, knowing who this cup had been brought as a joke gift one birthday some time ago. Casting a glance to the living room in the TV's where off, his brothers off in their worlds. No sounds of training filled the silence of their home with their father in Japan for the last few months with the Ancient One, lost in his sorrow.

Empty, it was the only way to describe their home now. With him not around, his energy and voice to draw them out of their single worlds. Donnie had turned all his energy to his lab, never coming out barely even to eat. Mike would have to play nurse paid to the Genius in making sure to remind him to even a bath at times. Being gentle and soft in his words and actions, not at all like the version he had been before.

Much of his playful nature lay to the side, the prankster taking a back seat as he took to his shoulders to try and help his brothers. Pulling in his inner grief, minus turned to April in those moments to cry and voice his own hurt to the world.

Pain, it was a rock in his gut. Lingering in every day of his disappointment at that moment as a ninja and brother to save one of their own that night. His failures open to the world to judge in his sins. Which was the worst part, his brothers never blamed him, his father's sad smile etched in his mind even on his parting.

Mikey could only hold the coffee cup, feeling it crack under the pressure of his grip, his pain screaming out. Feeling the shards cut his flesh as he broke the cup, his anguish pushing on the dam he had put on his soul. A wet intake of his voice filled the silence of the home. Only wishing that he had his brother back.

His heart shattered much as the cup he had been washing in his hands.


	3. Chapter 3

Leo

Nights like this, slightly warm with the edge of summer on the winds. A storm flashed from the ocean line, distance and threatening in its power it would unleash on the sleepy city. These where the nights that nearly made him feel something in his soul again.

Just he lacked one thing, one thing always with him. That item that defined who he was and had been till that night. No blades lay crossed over his shoulder, naked was his soul without them. The warrior he had been was gone and buried in his sorrow, his loathing in every breathe he took in his failure of that night...

His job, his duty in life was to protect his family, to lead them and guide them at times. Yes, it was hard, harder than anyone; even his own father might have known when he had chosen his oldest son for this duty. Even at a young age, his whole identity was shaped by this duty to his clan.

Now what? He had failed in this. Such on a night like this; he had failed in not looking back. Not taking into effect of that one Purple Dragon, his gun having that one bullet. This was what it took to shatter their family, taking that one life away.

That tried to save him, just blood was everywhere. Dark and red, ruby in the blinking street lamp. His eyes losing their fire as fought for every breathe, wet and gasping as the blood filled his lungs. The cries of Mikey as he beat the thug to death still craved into his very ears now. Donnie pushing a rag to the wound, knowing in his genius he could do nothing to save their brother on that street.

Failed.

Leo had failed as their brother most of all. Which was the one weight he would always bare, casting away his blades that day? Never to walk this path with his honor shattered. Even his father could not all these months before leaving for Japan would look his son in the eye. Eyes full of sorrow and confusions in what had happened, his oldest failing in that duty.

Each of his brothers took their grief to their own souls. How could he heal them being broken himself?


	4. Chapter 4

Raph

Good-Bye

Words he never thought would cross his mind when it came to his brothers. Personally, they were words he had in all his life when he had come to losing them that he refused to say at all. Now he had said them, spoken in the struggle of his blood, coppery on his tongue, filling his cheeks as he lay on the floor of the city.

Also to be brought down by a thug's one lucky shot? Well, that was also something he had never thought would happen. Hell, they had fought demons to warlocks and saved their world more than he could count on both his hands. Now it seems Lady Death had come to take her pound of flesh and that flesh was Raph.

He might have laughed an irony in his fate to die like this. More of now what? Worry for his family, to know Donnie was doing everything he could to stop the bleeding, the panic of what to do in Fearless eyes, Mikey's sorrowful voice filling the void of his last moments. So he made a choice, as his body fought to stay, gripping his soul as best it could. Just well that pound of flesh had to be paid right?

He would wait, not maybe in his body but his soul. Watching and waiting in the days that followed in his death. Was Raph a ghost? He could not say, not even sure he had some kind of shape in the middle ground of life and death. Watching as his death affected his family, knowing that they hurt and he could only try. More than once he reached to his father on those hidden plains, with meeting only the black grief keeping him away.

Yelling at Leo to pick up his swords again, to be that know it all leaders and get his brothers to wake. Kicking Donnie to wake up from his world of machines and self-blame. Punching Mikey to him to smile and be the joker, not this dull version.

So he waited as the days turned to weeks and weeks to months. Seeing the endless cycle and feeling he being pulled away to whatever place the souls go. Just he won't, he was tired of waiting for his family to wake up.

No, he was going to stop waiting and damn do something! Never in his life before did he wait around for something to happen! Raph had always been a doer, making things happen. He was going to find a way to make them stop waiting. Death would not go to stop him, more he would not let it.

It was time to move on, to move on to find a way back.

Note: Keep out an eye for Part two: We Move


End file.
